Redemption
by Moonwolf 3000
Summary: Rosa Davies lost the ultimate battle against Ghetsis Harmonia in Giant Chasm against Kyurem. Ghetsis kidnaps her from the Chasm and takes her to Almia in the wastelands of the north. With Ghetsis a target for assassination by the Unovan and Almian governments, can Rosa find a way to protect herself but also protect the very man she should hate? RosaXGhetsis, lemons, language...
1. Chapter 1

**Well, I started reading this fic called I Can Fix You (I can't remember the author's name) but it seriously inspired me to write a similar fic with my own twist. GhetsisXRosa/Mei. Language, emotional scenes, lemons, OCC Ghetsis and badass Rosa. Peace out! – PTB**

**Chapter One**

The sight of the seventeen-year-old girl falling to her knees before him was something that he hated, for a reason he could not understand. Ghetsis Harmonia had blocked out his feelings for many years. Why were they suddenly surfacing? What was it about this young girl that made him feel almost guilty about harming Zekrom and Kyurem?

Rosa Davies could not believe that she had lost. Then again, she was battling against two Pokémon fused into one massive powerhouse. Of course she had lost. How could she have ever even considered that she could win against Black Kyurem? Surely it was a fool's errand to begin with, from the instant she had set out with her Serperior, even before she woke up on that morning. Now all hope for both her and her Pokémon was lost. They would be released into the wild, even her young, inexperienced Zweilous. It made her feel so sick she wanted to throw up but she wouldn't even dignify that bastard with that, let alone the tears in her eyes she fought back.

"You're mine now," Ghetsis growled, his voice a deep tenor that somehow reminded her of her scientist father. "You have nowhere to go. Grunts!"

The cave swarmed full of Plasma Grunts instantly, including the Shadow Triad, who stood around N Harmonia, the so-called son her had disowned two years ago. "Kill him," Ghetsis demanded. "But not here. Do it in front of that weakling outside." His gaze travelled back to Rosa as she knelt on the ground, silent and unmoving. "Put her on the Frigate in a holding cell. Confiscate her Pokémon and put them with mine. We fly for the Manor in twenty minutes."

Rosa was hauled to her feet by two grunts. Eight of them formed a tight barrier around her and forced her to walk from the cave. Ghetsis caught sight of her face as she was escorted. Nothing, not even anger or sadness showed from beneath her blank composure. Her large blue eyes were dead, naught reflecting in them now. He had admired her fight, her will to survive, but in a few short moves, he had broken her. It was an accomplishment, especially against someone so fiery and full of life. It scared him that she had come so close but failed at the last instant. What had been going through her mind?

On board the Frigate, Rosa was placed in a small cell, one that only had a toilet and a cot in with a thin blanket. Bars were welded over the window at least six feet above the cot. She just stood there once the Grunts had closed and locked the door, staring at her surroundings. She wouldn't let them take her alive. The blanket was thin enough that she could make some rope. She knew her knots from Army Cadets when she was young. She refused to give in that easily.

In a burst of energy, she ripped the blanket into strips and set about knotting them together. With one end, she made a noose and with the other end, she made a knot around the bars she could just about reach. She pushed the cot a little way away from the wall and tip-toed on the edge so she could fit her head and neck through the noose. With a deep breath, she kicked the cot away. The tightness around her throat was instant and came with a freeing kind of pain. It was like falling asleep, the blackness coming over her in waves as she succumbed to it.

"_Don't you dare!_" Ghetsis's roar came out of nowhere. The pressure on her neck relieved and dissipated, the noose being taken from around her neck. She was limp as she was handled with large, rough hands that were surprisingly gentle. Ghetsis glowered at her as if she could see his expression. "You are not going anywhere, Rosa," he snapped. "You are mine. I don't care how many attempts you make to end your life, I will stop you. You. Are. Mine."

The Grunts present took her to another cell, one with no toilet, no window with bars and no blanket. When she awoke again, she just stayed on the cot, looking up at the ceiling of cold, grey metal. She heard the sounds of the Frigate in flight, the Grunts talking and occasionally looking through the grate to make sure she had not harmed herself further.

Ghetsis stared at the screen in his study, watching Rosa as she lay on the cot. _Catatonic_, he thought, _so in shock of what happened that she has retreated into herself._ He found it amazing that she had the strength not to cry after all that had happened to her. He smiled faintly as he watched her. She was quite pretty, if he was honest with himself. Her hair was the colour of autumn leaves, a lighter kind of auburn between mousy brown and red. Those big cobalt blue eyes were half closed, framed with lashes a mile long. She was of average height at five feet and four inches tall but she had a very athletic figure. Her thighs were tight with muscle, her abdomen flat and her arms slender. Of course, he had seen her amazing backside many times and frequently admired it when he watched the footage of her beating through his Grunts with her Serperior and Samurott. For some reason, she also had an Emboar, a Braviary, an Eelektross, an Accelgor and a vast amount of various other Pokemon. What a strange young woman she was. Her choice in Pokémon was exceptional, as well as her training style.

What could have broken her? He hadn't seen her expression fade until he had ordered his Hydreigon to attack her Zweilous with a nasty Dragon Rush. Had she known that the recently evolved Dragon-type would have been able to dodge the attack in time? Or had she just given up hope? It plagued him like a rash, itching in his brain. Why had she let her guard down? Why had she let her Pokémon take so many critical hits? Maybe she had been secretly hoping for this…but no, she was too righteous for that and she, like his bastard son, believed Pokémon and people help better each other.

He shook his head and sighed, rubbing his eye. He didn't want her catatonic. He wanted her full of fire and passion and anger. He wanted the Rosa he had come to expect, someone with too much stubbornness to back down from a fight or to let fear get in the way. It was typical of him to want women he could not have, especially younger women. His limit was the age of consent at sixteen and Rosa was a year older. He looked at the file on his desk about her and flipped it open, looking at the photos that had been recently taken of her when she had been battling Gym Leaders and the like. She was a phoenix to him, passionate and full of life. But in the end, all phoenixes die and are reborn from the ashes. He had a feeling that when she got over her shock, she would grow again to be the feisty girl she had been.

When the Frigate docked, Ghetsis paused in his musings and smiled as he watched the grunts force Rosa to get up and escorted her into Plasma Manor in the Northern Mountains of Almia. It was a frozen wasteland but, thankfully, the Manor had all the heat it needed. The hot water came from an underground hot spring and was constantly being recycled to clean it. The lights were all electric. The décor was his obvious choice, expensive paintings and lush rugs you could lose your feet in they were so deep and soft.

He watched as the Grunts took Rosa into the Manor and took her directly to the bedroom he had ordered his grunts to decorate for her. She was shoved inside and just stood there in the middle of the room. After what seemed like an age, she seemed to sigh and went to the dresser. Inside, he knew, were sets of underwear, pyjamas and socks. In the wardrobe beside it, there was a range of trousers, T-shirts, skirts and dresses with shoes gathered in the bottom. He watched as she picked out a simple white T-shirt and a pair of black jeans and exit into the en suite bathroom. An undercover Team Plasma operative had conveyed her sizes to him through working at the Opelucid City department store.

He sighed to himself and left his office on the Frigate, retreating from the cold air into the Manor. His room was beside Rosa's guest bedroom. Once he had changed from his black robes into a navy shirt and a pair of slacks, he felt brave enough to go and see Rosa, to explain to her why he took her.

He knocked three times on her door but there was no answer. He entered regardless to find her sitting on the window seat, her back against the cushions as she stared out at the white mountains. Her arms were hugging her knees, which were drawn up to her chest. She didn't look at him when he entered, just kept ignoring everything that went on around her.

"Rosa?" Ghetsis said in as calm and gentle a tone as he could muster. Saying her name brought no reaction from her. He walked over to where she sat and looked out of the window from behind her. Sawsbuck and Deerling in their winter coats roamed the small patches of grass for food. Snover and their Abomasnow parents played, making snowmen. "Rosa, look at me," he tried again.

She remained still, not even tensing a millimetre.

He decided on a different approach. He placed a hand on her shoulder, which got a too-quick reaction from her. She caught his wrist and twisted it in a grip made for archaeology, glaring at him with no remorse. It hurt like hell but he knew it was merely a sprain. She shoved him away from her, standing up to confront him despite the fact that he had foot and two inches on her.

"_Don't touch me!_" she screamed at him. "_Don't ever fucking touch me!_"

He kept his calm, although it was wavering thin. "Now that I have your attention, I would like to speak with you."

She glared at him with pure venom and sat back down, curling into the same position as before. "Doesn't mean I'll listen," she spat.

He sat opposite her, crossing his legs. "If you attempt to escape or to harm yourself again, I will not be happy. I am not the kind of man you want to be otherwise. You will not like it one bit," he said, trying to restrain his anger. "If you do…let's just say there will be adequate punishment to be met."

She didn't react, just kept staring out of the window.

"You will join me to eat dinner in one hour. I suggest you spend that time contemplating the possible punishment I might come up with if you refuse," he seethed through his teeth. He stood and briskly walked out of the room, slamming the door behind himself.

Rosa sighed once he had left and huddled into herself again. She didn't understand it. How could someone be so cruel to everything around him? She took a deep breath and looked at the clock. It looked like dinner was at six-thirty. She sure wasn't going to attend. Instead, she decided on filling the Jacuzzi-like bath tub with hot water and bubbles to lose herself.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Ghetsis was irate by the time dinner was served. He had demanded Rosa's presence at dinner but she had not come to join him and his remaining sages to eat. When he asked a grunt to check on her, he had reported back that she was in the bath. After twenty minutes of waiting for her, his dinner went colder than his heart. Once the sages had been dismissed, he marched to Rosa's room, adamant to find out why she had not joined the assembled party for dinner.

He entered her room, scowling that she was still not out of the bath. The en suite bathroom door was ajar, letting the soft sound of the radio playing waft through. He could smell lavender, chamomile, ylang-ylang and rosewood. He realised she was utilising the essential oils a grunt had put in there for her use by putting them in her bath water. The scent was relaxing and calming, something that made him want to get in the bath with her just to experience its scent at close range.

Stealthily, he looked through the crack in the door to find Rosa in the sunken tub, her back to him. Her wet hair shimmered with sparkling and popping bubbles. Her freckled shoulders were feminine and slanted. Arceus above, he could swear that just the sight of her mere shoulders got him physically excited.

She shifted to grab the glass of coke that was on the side, leaning up to get it. He figured that she liked drinking through straws, since she had one in the glass. The initial swell of her fresh, pert breasts showed but the bubbles covered the rest with a mystery he wished to uncover. Her skin glowed with healthy vitality as if she had recently been in the sun.

A small smile crept across his mouth as he watched her drink from the straw. She sucked on it so strongly that half of the glass had gone by the time she had finished, sighed and sunk back into the steaming water. He heard her make a sound of impatience and watched as she practically swam across to the large taps. She added more hot water, as if it wasn't hot enough from the mist rising from it.

He wanted to join her, to fuck her in the bath tub, feeling her silken limbs against his mature body. Not that he was old at just thirty-two. He had raised N, Anthea and Concordia since he was young himself, but that had been with the aid of hired nannies to teach them what they were supposed to know. Arceus above, he hated his children. N had quit on what would have changed Unova for the better. Anthea and Concordia had left him without explanation. But he didn't care. He didn't care about anything.

But the way Rosa moved was enough to make his blood race and his pupils dilate. Just watching her settle again in the bath made him calm his anger with minimal effort, despite how much she enraged him.

He stopped in his staring and went to sit on the couch facing the door. She had to be getting out soon. From what he had seen, her fingers were pruned dramatically and her hair was half-dried. He was right in his assumption, judging by the way he heard the noise of the plug being released and the radio turn off. Pity – it had started the introduction of Adrian von Ziegler's _Eternal Snow_ composition, a firm favourite of his from the Swedish musician.

Rosa left the bathroom and caught sight of Ghetsis sitting in a quite agitated pose on the sofa. A scowl darkened her features. "What do you want?" she snapped, turning her back on him in the blue dressing down she wore to the outfit she had selected earlier. "Of course, it's not like you haven't taken my entire life away from me." Her voice was seething toxic, her stance unforgiving and rigid.

"Why did you not come to dinner as I told you to?" he asked coolly, if not arrogantly.

She snorted. "Do you seriously think I even want to look at you, let alone be put off my food by your mere presence?" she said, drying her hair in a white towel with her back to him.

"You are trying my patience."

"And you've pushed me too far this time," she snarled, advancing on him as he sat there. "You try to take over Unova. You steal my friend's baby sister's Purrloin – imagine, someone stealing a three-year-old's pet! You almost kill my cousin Touya. You kidnap Touya's sister Touko! You disown your children and you use punishments for your own sick satisfaction. Exactly how can you say_ that I am trying your patience when I have lost all of mine?!_" Her voice raised to a shout in her rant, her face close to his. "You are nothing. That is all you will ever be, whether you like it or not, you sycophantic psychopath."

He glared at her as he stood, forcing her to look up at him with that same Rosa Davies fire he so craved to see. Her shoulders rose and fell with her breaths, cool and easy despite her fury. "You do realise you have nowhere to go from here," he said quietly. "Outside, you wouldn't last an hour before getting hypothermia. You would have to stumble for at least nine miles before you found the nearest village and even then you wouldn't find it." He canted his head to the side, his mouth thinning into a slit. "Exactly how do you plan to get away from here, Rosa?"

She folded her arms, which made a gap in her dressing gown that revealed her cleavage. She had a small scar between her breasts and several scratch scars on her collar bones and the front of her shoulders. He had noted similar ones on her arms when he had been watching her in the bath. He briefly wondered what had caused them as she glowered up at him.

"You're a bastard and a lying sociopath," she snapped, turning away from him and seeing to her hair. "Get out. I'm about to get naked and I don't want to give you the pleasure of seeing me unclothed."

Little did she know he could just watch her from his office. Various hidden cameras were placed strategically in the bedroom to watch her every move, even while she slept, if she ended up sleeping at all. He knew, as he left her room, that he would have to distract her for the day to get some grunts to put cameras in the bathroom so he could – no, she would hate him even more if he did that and she found out.

After her encounter with Ghetsis, Rosa dried off and dressed in the jeans and T-shirt from earlier, looking at her arms and inspecting her scars. The Bio-Oil she used after her bath might help them fade. She hated her scars. They made her ugly but strong, and that was all she liked about them. She lived by the phrase 'what does not kill you makes you stronger'. From all the harm that had come to her, she was determined not to let any Plasmids even so much as look at her the wrong way without giving them a good kicking, especially Ghetsis. It had taken all of her restraint not to attempt murder with the letter opener on the desk.

Despite the fact that she despised him with ever fibre of her being, up close he actually smelled pretty good. She had assumed from his ragged clothes that he had the personal hygiene of a tramp but as opposed to the unwashed dirty stench of body odour, her nose had been assaulted with a citrus combination of lemon, mandarin and bergamot with a hint of balsamic sandalwood. From a distance, his hair looked greasy and unkempt but she had been tempted to touch a lock that fell over his forehead to see if it was as soft and silky as it looked up close. That off-putting, glowing red eye gave her the creeps, putting her off the rouge lipstick she had worn almost all of her teenage life. It was like that single eye could see all of her darkest fears and play them out in his twisted mind.

She shuddered at the thought and took up her seat on the bay window, this time with a book on the physiology and anatomy of Eevee and its evolutions. She had always loved the Eevee family, knowing that a single Eevee could evolve into eight different types. The most recently discovered type, Sylveon, was still being researched in Kanto by various scientists, including her father, who had divorced her mother when she was a baby. They still kept in touch at odd intervals, like during exam times and such, but otherwise, she rarely spoke to her father.

She realised at that moment that she realised she missed her family, especially her cousin Touya, who was exploring the world with his partner Reshiram. She missed her mother, the home-cooked hot pots and stews she used to make in the winter and the potato salads and roast chicken in the summer. Her father was the least missed, since she rarely saw him anymore. Touya had visited him on his travels, his favourite uncle, and allowed him to study Reshiram for guides on legendary Pokémon on behalf of the two Professor Junipers.

She sighed and started reading, hoping that Ghetsis wouldn't bother her again that evening.

She was wrong. As she dozed off on the bay window, there was a knock at the door and the bastard came in without a worded admission from Rosa. She glared at him for a moment before going back to her book, which she had nearly finished.

"I apologise," he said simply, as if it was enough to just say that for all the things he had done.

She sighed and closed the book. "Why can't you just take a hint and leave me the fuck alone?" she snapped, giving him a weary look. "I don't want to be here. I don't want to even be in the same region as you. What makes you think I want your company or your apology?"

His gaze darkened and she noticed that he wore a black button-down with the sleeves rolled up to show firm, muscular fore arms, a pair of ochre slacks and, surprisingly, a pair of white Nikes. Normally he seemed to favour those weird robes she had seen him in previously. He let out a disgruntled sound and advanced towards her, taking a seat opposite her. "You still haven't even asked why I took you," he said, resisting the urge to grit his teeth.

She shrugged. "I don't think I even want to know. Knowing you, it's probably because of some sick obsession you have with keeping trophies," she muttered, reopening her book and starting to read about Glaceon.

"It is not that," he said with a quirk to his mouth.

Was that an actual glimmer of humour she saw? She sighed heavily and closed her book with a bang, glaring at him. "Then what? Since you seem eager to tell me and interrupt my reading."

"I took you because you are interesting," he mused, inspecting his fingernails, which were clipped and clean. "I like to be interested in people and objects, but the former less than the latter. You might make a decent asset to me, given time to adjust to your surroundings and situation."

"Adjust?" she barked. "You're even sicker than I first thought."

He carried on unperturbed by her interruption. "The reason you interest me is because of our battle. What as going through your mind that allowed you to have your Pokémon hit with super-effective attacks over and over? Surely you knew it was a fool's errand."

She rolled her eyes, a typical teenager. "Do you honestly give a damn about what I think? Seriously, I don't like you. Actually, scratch that, I absolutely _loathe_ you. After everything you've done, how can you act like you give a crap now?"

He raised a brow. "You will see, given time, and in that time, you will come to know the reasons behind my actions." He stood and nodded at her. "Good evening, Rosa."

She hadn't noticed before out of blind hatred that he had a slightly Almian accent, one that made him roll the 'R's and 'L's on his tongue, his 'B's punctuate strongly and the 'A's in every word sound like 'ah'. She mulled it over as he left, then got changed into some night clothes, which entailed a loose T-shirt and a pair of baggy pyjama trousers.

Meanwhile, Ghetsis, too, was tired from the day's excitement and stress. He took off his shirt and caught sight of his scarred back in the full-length mirror. He sighed softly, wishing there was some way he could remove the impurities from his body. His gaze flickered to the monitor on his desk to show Rosa slipping into bed. He smiled slightly and knew that she had the right idea. He removed his shirt completely and his slacks, leaving himself in his black boxer shorts – he hated those Speedo-style pants and Y-fronts equally so resorted to the younger man's choice in underwear, if at all. A majority of the time, he went commando.

He looked at his body in the mirror, knowing he wasn't as young as he used to be. Rosa…she made him feel younger, more energised, but at the same time she infuriated him delightfully. He liked a challenging woman. He looked over the various scars on his thighs, abdomen, chest and shoulders, knowing they would never go away. A sigh left him; even though he worked to keep in shape, no amount of work would rid him of his scars, nor Rosa of hers.


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't know if Ghetsis does or doesn't have siblings, nor do I care. I'm just giving him siblings at random – three sisters and a twin brother. His sisters are filling the post BW Anthea-and-Concordia-sized hole in my writing. Peace out! Xx**

**Chapter Three**

The following morning, Rosa was awakened by a knock at the door. A lethargic glance at the digital clock on the nightstand told her it was a quarter to seven, way too early for her to even consider being awake.

"What," she snarled when the knocker knocked again.

"Miss Rosa," said an unfamiliar voice. "May we please come in?"

"Do whatever you want," she spat. "It's not like my opinion makes a difference."

The knocker entered, revealing three women, all with tea green hair like Ghetsis. They looked like him, too, but much prettier. All three had much more sedate copper eyes and relaxed postures. The tallest of the three smiled at Rosa as the one who seemed to be the youngest at around twenty-five closed the door.

"We are Ghetsis' sisters," the eldest said. "I am Galatea but you can call me Galatea. This" – she gestured to the middle woman – "is Alexandra and" – her gesture turned to the youngest – "this is Evangeline."

Rosa raised a brow. "I didn't know he had siblings," she muttered, sitting up and stretching. "I'm Rosa Davies."

The youngest, Evangeline, smiled. "We know. Ghetsis asked us to entertain you during your residence here." Rosa noted that she had pixie-cut hair and wore jeans and a scoop-neck vest.

"And to make sure you are familiar with your schedule from now on," Alexandria, the middle sister, said whilst pulling her waist-length hair into a loose, low ponytail. She had a pencil skirt and a black-and-white blouse on, very much a dominatrix-like style with the shiny black heels

Galatea smiled sympathetically. Rosa also took note of her style, which was very elegant – a grey dress with a black, thick leather belt, black tights and a pair of red heels to match the red cardigan she wore. "We know our brother can be very, ah, imposing and demanding and we are here for you to talk to. Anything you say to us will not be repeated to Ghetsis."

Rosa shrugged and got up. "I have to apologise. I thought that if he had any siblings, they would be as sick as he is."

The three of them laughed softly. Galatea grinned at her. "Yes, Ghetsis does have his strange moments but we think that his charisma and charm are what won over the Team Plasma recruits," she murmured. "We live here, so any time you want us, just ask one of the sages, Ghetsis or one of the Team Plasma members wearing a blue wristband. They are the more important ones, the administrators, so to speak."

"The ones with green bands are the lowest grunts," Alexandria explained. "Red is second level and yellow is just below the administrators. You'll already know the Shadow Triad cannot be seen unless they allow you to see them."

Rosa shuddered. "Ugh. I hate those three."

Evangeline shrugged. "They aren't so bad once they warm up to you. Our brother saved their lives. They used to live their daily lives as Cilan, Cress and Chili of the old Straiaton City Gym before they disappeared with Ghetsis and the place was shut down."

"Plus," Galatea said with a slight smirk, "their real names are Tate, Seth and Jace. You can tell the difference by their eyes and their voices. Tate has blue, Seth has green and Jace has red. The only thing is that you're not allowed to flirt with them. They can get a little…carried away."

Rosa's eyes widened. "What do you mean, carried away?"

Alexandria cleared her throat. "Sexually-wise. Evangeline made the mistake of-"

Evangeline elbowed Alexandria. "Shut it!" she snapped, then looked at Rosa. "Let's just say it didn't end well and I kinda hate those pricks now…but the angry hate sex is awesome."

"_Ew!_" Rosa squealed. "I really did _not_ want to know that!"

Galatea smacked Evangeline upside the head. "Dick," she muttered. "Don't scare her. She's only seventeen."

"I'll be eighteen in ten days," she supplied. "My birthday is June eighteenth."

They all grinned. "Then we have a party to plan!" Alexandria chirped. "Of course, we'll take down notes of your preferred setting, meals and activities to plan the perfect day for you. We are here mainly to be your friends, since our brother can be a little-"

"A little what, Alexandria?"

The girls all turned in shock to the door, where Ghetsis leant against the doorway in a pair of black slacks, his shirt undone to his navel. Rosa was temporarily shocked by the ripped and toned shape of his upper body, which put him in the physically attractive but mentally assaholic category in her mind. But the scars covering him made her wonder about his past.

"Oh great," she growled. "Just go ahead and ruin what was turning out to be a too-early but very nice morning. Asshat."

The Harmonia sisters filed out of the room and Ghetsis shut the door behind himself as he entered. Rosa was instantly uncomfortable with being alone with him. There was an air about him this morning that screamed that he was not to be messed with. She still intended to show her true feelings despite the aura surrounding him.

He regarded her the way one would look at a rose, as if wanting to pick it but knowing the thorns would cut the skin open. "I believe you mistake me for someone you should hate," he murmured, going to one of the sofas and sitting on it. He gestured for her to sit opposite him but she stood, arms folded. "You shouldn't, trust me. Being at loggerheads with me is really not a good place for anyone."

She shrugged. "I'd rather insult you than get to know you."

He raised a brow and continued. "Rosa, learn the difference between your friends and your enemies. Right now, I am not the enemy, I promise. Because you interest me, I only wish to learn more about you until the unlikely time that you bore me, at which point I will have you taken back to Aspertia City."

She sighed and sat on the other sofa as far away from him as possible. "So, what? You want me to be your friend?" Was there a way she could work this to her advantage? She definitely hoped so. "Arceus, you can't be _that_ lonely."

He avoided her eye. "Contrary to your opinion, Rosa, I am most definitely lonely."

Her brows raised. "You have your sages, your sisters, even Team Plasma. Exactly what excuse do you have to be lonely?" She laughed at how farcical it was. "Wow, you must have more friends than I do."

He shook his head. "No, I do not. That is why I took you. I need someone there for company, for ease and for the times when life gets me down."

"I can't believe you get depressed," she muttered. "So, if I do become your friend, what privileges do I get?"

His mouth quirked. "Given time and monitoring of your compliance, you will eventually be allowed to visit your hometown – accompanied, of course – and eventually, you will be allowed to leave for the nearest city with the Shadow Triad to shop and maybe even make more friends."

She shrugged. "Not much use without money."

"Then I will give you a monthly stipend to spend as you see fit on a credit card, which will increase weekly if I feel you are making the effort and decrease if I feel you are not."

She considered his offer for a moment, then sighed softly. "Fine, it can't hurt," she said, lessening her aggressive pose. "Since I'm awake anyway, why not start now?"

He nodded. "Yes, that would be…respectable."

She looked at him expectantly. When all he did was look back at her, she sighed. "I guess I'll kick it off then?" she mused. "Um…Arceus, I don't even know what the fuck to ask you."

He chuckled softly. "I have a few questions I would like to ask you so shall I start?"

She nodded and hugged her legs to her chest, getting as comfortable as she could in the presence of a criminal. "Go for it, but nothing too personal."

"Of course not. I wanted to ask for a while now…Which was your first Pokémon and why did you pick them?"

She frowned. "Well, it's complicated. My Mum is a Pokémon Breeder – mostly starters for Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova – and she specialises in Dragon types. She said I could go on a journey once I had studied Pokémon Breeding at college and I agreed because it would give me an edge. She gave me the choice of three starters from each region. I picked Unova because it's my home, hence why I now have an Emboar, a Samurott and a Serperior on my…" She trailed off, then sighed heavily. "I forgot. You took them."

He shook his head. "I merely put them with my Pokémon in what we call the Dome. It's an underground facility specially made for Pokémon of all shapes and sizes and caters to their every need, but a Wailord would be too much." He took out a small tablet device from his pocket and got up a picture of his Hydreigon playing with his Eelektross and Seismitoad and handed it to her. "Those three are mine. If you scroll through, you'll find pictures of all of my Pokémon, not just my main team. I will admit, I have a soft spot for Dragon types."

Rosa slide through each picture, some with Ghetsis and his Pokémon but mostly without. She came across one of him with his three sisters but they all looked much younger. Evangeline couldn't have been older than ten or eleven in this picture but Ghetsis looked to be around twenty. An older man and woman stood behind the four of them, as well as another young man who seemed to be the same age as Ghetsis. Did he have a brother, too? And parents who were still alive?

She decided to save that question for later, when he trusted her more – not that she wanted him to. It was more of a need so she could leave permanently. She handed it back to him. "It looks pretty good," she said bluntly.

He turned off his mini tablet and tucked it into his pocket. "Hydreigon was my first Pokémon. My parents gave my sisters and brother a different Dragon-type each, hence why I have a soft spot for them. Galatea has a Dragonite. Alexandra has a Flygon. Evangeline has a Druddigon. My brother's name is Aristotle and he has a Salamence. He gave his daughter a Swablu and his son an Axew."

"Is he older or younger? Your brother, I mean," she asked, curious.

"Aristotle is my twin," he said with a wistful smile. "I rarely see him anymore – he concentrates more on his family than on our sisters and I. Our parents are both dead so we only have each other."

She shrugged. "It's better than having nobody. My friend Hugh Andersen practically raised his little sister Olivia by himself because his mother was almost constantly working. When she died, she went into foster care and it killed him. Thankfully, my mother fosters her so Hugh gets to see Livi all the time." She smiled, the sight of her happiness making Ghetsis' mood lift dramatically. "I really miss them. Hugh and Livi are like family to me."

Ghetsis smiled for a moment, then his expression went back to the usual composed mask he wore. "You love them a lot," he said – a statement, not a question.

Rosa nodded. "Yeah, especially Livi. She's the little sister I never had, even though I wanted one." She hugged her knees with a noise of sadness.

"Can I…" he said, but stopped before he could get far enough.

She raised a brow, expecting him to continue. "Can you what?"

"MayIhugyou?" He rushed it out, damn him.

She gave him a dirty look. "No way, buddy. If there's one condition of this…thing, it's no touching me or you lose the ability to even so much as use your right hand to jerk off."

"I beg your pardon!" he snapped. "'Jerk off'?! I'm _not_ a teenager unable to keep it in his underwear for five minutes. I _do not_ 'jerk off'."

She gave his slacks a pointed glance. "Dude, you've been sitting there with a stiffy for the past twenty minutes."

"A what?"

She groaned. "A bloody erection, you retard," she said, rubbing her eyes as if she had a sudden headache.

He looked down to find no evidence of what she described in his crotch area, then raised a brow at her. "Do you really hate me so much that you're trying to antagonise me?"

"If I'm totally honest with you, I don't want to be your friend. All you've ever done is impact the world badly and separating people from Pokémon? That's not going to end well for any – HEY!"

Before she could articulate what was happening, he had crossed the short distance between the sofas and tilted her head up. "You talk too much," he murmured, then claimed her mouth in a searing kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

**Poke-lover88: Haha, glad you enjoyed the first three chapters, honey! XD Yeah, I wanted to give Ghetsis a little more character and depth, so I came up with his family. I have eight chapters done and I am writing the ninth now! Asshat…Lol, one of my favourite funny insults along with a few others I might put down. Believe it, sweetie, cause I Can Fix You is awesome ;) Oh and her reaction is going to be hilarious! Xxx**

**Chapter Four**

Rosa tore away from Ghetsis despite his grip on her, the adrenaline she had felt before his mouth slammed into hers. She had thought he was going to harm her, hence why she was feeling a rush of danger going through her. Of course, he hadn't said whether or not he would harm her yet – and maybe he would at some point given the correct amount of provocation.

"_Don't touch me!_" she screamed, struggling to get out of the cage of his arms. "_Get off me! Leave me alone, you sick fuck! What the fuck do you think you're doing?! Someone help me!_"

He grinned as she struggled and fought under his grip. He wasn't going to harm her in the least – she just thought he would and she was very wrong. As she struggled, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Don't struggle, Rosa. I'm not going to hurt you, I swear. Calm down, please. That's it, calm down."

To her surprise, her limbs went weak and her body limp. She didn't know what it was that made her so still. She still struggled a little, wriggling to aid her attempt at a get-away. He kept holding her, pressing her very close – much closer than she wanted to be to him.

"Please let go of me," she whispered, fighting back tears. "Just let go."

He obeyed her with a serenity he had rarely been able to pull off, gently sitting her up as he went. He placed himself beside her, keeping a hand between her shoulders. Through the white T-shirt, he saw a dense trio of black outlines. "What's this?" he asked, tapping the black markings on the shirt.

"It…It's my tattoo," she said softly, drawing her legs up to her chest – a show of vulnerability and insecurity. "I had it done a couple of weeks ago."

"What is it of?" he murmured, tracing the outline of the middle one.

"It's of Moltres. It's a Kanto Pokémon. It's also called the Phoenix in some places. When they die, they are reborn from the ashes and go on living. Their tears have healing powers. Their song can bring back the recently dead. I've always wanted to see one." She smiled slightly and looked at him. "Do you have any ink?"

He raised a brow. "What do you mean by 'ink'?"

"Tattoos," she said. "Do you have any tattoos?"

He shook his head. "No, but I've actually been considering one. I haven't chosen what it would be yet but I've been told they are addictive."

She snorted softly. "I won't dispute that. I have another two either side of it of Zapdos and Articuno. I forget the legends on them but Moltres is the only one that matters for me. She is a symbol of strength, love and loyalty." She swiped at her cheeks were tears lingered. "I hope she knows that, right now, I need all the strength she's willing to give me."

He stroked her back; all the reaction he got was a jolting flinch. His touch left her and he felt almost empty with longing. He wanted to touch her, to comfort her, but her antipathy tainted her bright purity. She still shone, in his eyes, like a fire cracker. The thought of how fiery she was and the irony of his prior thought made him smile slightly. He hadn't done it in so long that he thought his muscles might have forgotten how but the expression still lingered.

She snorted again. "Why am I even telling you this?" she muttered, then sighed and stood up, striding with quicksilver fluidity over to the bay window where her bright yellow bag sat. She dug in it for a moment and pulled out a Pokéball she had hidden in the side pocket. She kissed the top of it and put it back before Ghetsis could see the Pokéball and substituted it for a two-day-old bottle of sweet pecha juice, which she took a strong gulp of and let out a long breath. She looked over her shoulder at Ghetsis, who still sat on the sofa leisurely. The movement made her look even more adorable. "Why do you even want to be my friend, huh?" she questioned. "You must have people you can talk to – not just me."

He sighed. "I don't. My colleagues do not equate being my underlings as being my friends."

"'If you want to know what a man is like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals,'" she murmured, putting the pecha juice bottle back in her bag.

"Who said that?" he asked gently. "Roosevelt? Ghandi?"

She smirked. "J.K. Rowling. She put it in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'." She took a seat on the sofa opposite him, crossing her legs. "I have this book. I write quotes in it and, because I have a photographic memory, I've turned into a quote encyclopedia. My favourites are actually Elanor Roosevelt and Mahatma Ghandi but the best ones are by Tupac Shakur."

He frowned at the unfamiliar name. "Tupac Shakur? Who is he?"

She snickered. "He was a rapper in the nineties. My father used to love him and played me his CDs when I was little. He was shot dead – I don't know why – by someone in, I think, ninety-four, the year I was born."

He felt a smile tug his lips. "Would you care to share with me some of his quotes?"

She shrugged. "One I love is the quote 'wars come and go but my soldiers stay eternal.' It's poetic but beautiful." She smiled slightly. "Dad would say that Tupac was a legend even when he was alive, that he delivered internal rhymes people could relate to. He was an amazing artist in his own right."

He cocked his head to one side. "I prefer the quotes of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain."

She grinned. "'To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist; that is all.' Wilde is one of my other favourites."

"What about Twain?" He looked smug, thinking she would not know who Mark Twain was. Then again, she knew Wilde so perhaps there was hope for her intelligence yet.

"'If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything,'" she recited with a smirk.

"'Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that,'" he retorted.

"Martin Luther King Junior," she said arrogantly. "'The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.'"

"Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'," he answered. He thought for a moment, then a good one hit him. If she knew this quote, he was sure as hell going to end up bedding her. "'It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.'"

Rosa pursed her lips. "It was made famous by Kurt Cobain but it was André Gide who said it first."

_Arceus_, he thought, _she is even more intelligent than I first thought…Perhaps having her as my own will be much more difficult than I had predicted._ He brushed his hair back off his face, out of his vision, just so he could view her clearer. She was lithe, toned, and he was clinging to his last shreds of sanity not to toy with her breasts at random to see if the pert globes were as soft as they looked, to cup her rear to feel whether or not it was as firm as the rest of her. He had a feeling she would…how did youngsters say it these days? She would 'freak out' if he gave in to the primal urges he had tried to smother deep within.

"Very good," he murmured. "I underestimated your cleverness."

She nodded grimly. "That would be very true." She smiled to herself as if relishing a secret thought. "I had a nanny from when I was six month old until I turned six. Her name was Anisa. She always told me the same thing every day, no matter what. She always used to use the same quote from 'The Help'. 'You is kind, you is smart and you is important.' I remember her every time someone thinks I'm dumb or bitchy or inferior. My mother…She loved Elanor Roosevelt quotes. Her favourite was 'no-one can make you feel inferior without your permission'." She smiled again and chuckled gently. "I haven't seen her in sixteen months. I miss her cooking, the nights we'd spend cuddled up on the sofa watching film after film, even when she used to nag me to clean my room whenever my friend Hugh and I got a little too playful."

Ghetsis bit down on the inside of his lower lip. "I never had many friends when I was growing up. People used to say it was because of my eyes – where I come from in Almia, red eyes are very uncommon."

Rosa shrugged. "I have a philosophy that gets me through life. Maybe you could learn from it."

"I might, if you tell me it," he replied, leaning forward to rest his chin on his entwined hands, elbows on his knees.

She half-smiled. "I never judge someone I don't know. I don't care about colour, religion, Pokémon preferences or which gender they prefer. I mean, Hugh, for example, was raised Catholic. His family immigrated to Unova from Oblivia. He preferred Tepig to Snivy and he's gay, believe it or not, which is why me and him have never been in a relationship together. Before he realised he was gay, we were on the verge of getting together, if you catch my drift." She shrugged. "I guess he just preferred my cousins Nate and Touya." She looked up at him and smiled slightly again. "You know, I had you pegged a little off. I just thought you were a psychopath with a god complex."

He snorted, a sound quite unbecoming of him. "As I did with you, you underestimated me. I am not completely deranged, but when you think on it, everyone is insane in their own way."

She shrugged. "I guess you're right in that respect." She paused and a three-minute silence ensued. She sighed softly before speaking. "Can I ask you something?"

He nodded. "You may."

"What's with the whole Unova-wide domination thing?" she asked bluntly. "I mean, I know everyone gets picked on at some point in their lives but seriously, becoming the tyrant over an entire region is taking playground name-calling a bit too far."

He shook his head. "I don't think you're ready for that answer, Rosa. I wish I could give you it now, but it would only – what's the word? – confuse you further about me." At her surprised expression, he elaborated. "I can see it in your face. When you look at me, you see a monster with very few human qualities and, as you put it, a god complex. As you already know, I can be vicious if necessary but I am not completely a nightmare. I can see that this puzzles you, but you will grow to learn, in time, why I did what I did and what motives were behind it."

She gave a tolerant half-smile. "I guessed you wouldn't answer that."

He gave her a small smile back. "Tell me, what do you think of your room?"

She shrugged. "Bearable. The bay window and the Jacuzzi are nice, I suppose." She strived for flippancy, making herself sound uncaring. "I don't think much of the silk sheets, though. I'm allergic to silk threads, especially Spinarak and Ariados thread."

He raised a brow. "In that case, I will have someone change the covers for you to cotton."

She nodded. "That would be good."

He stood and straightened his shirt, trying to maintain his appearance. "I must leave you now. I have work to finish." He dared a glance at her face, which was tinged with both indifference and melancholy. "Of course, you are welcome in my study if you wish to continue our conversation while I work."

She shook her head politely. "No, I'm good. I want to finish reading that Eevee book you interrupted." She stood and picked up the book from where she had left it.

He nodded with a smile that made him look ten years younger. "Then I wish you a good evening, Rosa." He paused before taking a step towards her, then another, until he was a foot away from her. "May I ask a ridiculous question before I go?"

She shrugged. "Shoot."

"May I kiss you again before I leave?"

Her eyes flared wide. "No, no way. For one, I don't know you enough yet to even like you, let alone let you kiss me. For another, you kinda forced that awkward 'kiss' on me."

Disappointment he had expected. The pain in his chest he had not. "Then, in that case, may I at least request a handshake?"

She raised a brow. "A kiss and a handshake are pretty far apart, but yeah, a handshake is tolerable."

She met his hand in the middle and at the touch of his shockingly rough skin, a rush of heat tumbled down her spine. Arceus, she knew this feeling and it was one she hated. _Desire_ was such a filthy word to her and just that feeling made both fear and horror fill her mind. It much have shown on her face.

"Is something wrong?" Ghetsis asked, releasing her hand from his grip.

She shook her head. "No. Go have fun with your paperwork." She practically spat the words.

He took that as his cue to leave and closed the door behind himself, escaping to his study.


	5. Chapter 5

**Poke-lover88: I know right? GoodReads is good for quotes. Yeah, I thought about her profile and decided to make her intelligent but still sort of clinging to childhood memories. Yeah, it's not a pretty story he's going to tell her about that. Yup, Rosa's falling! Here's the next three chappies for you! Xx**

**Poke Pimp: Well, duh! XD I have a think about N and Ghetsis – might do a Ginny Perry and have an NXGhetsis yaoi shot ;) Hugs dude Xx**

**Septentrion Euchoreutes: You'll be surprised from about chapter ten onwards! I've got some major surprises coming up. Xx**

**Vino210: :o Noooo! I like fucking with things like this! **** Wolfie saaaaad….Lol just kidding ;) Xx**

**One-sided dream lemon this chapter ;) You know you love my lemons, people!**

**Chapter Five**

Ghetsis sat in his study, feeling strangely lonely after his conversation with Rosa that morning. He tapped his pen against his desk, looking at the letter he had penned blankly. He didn't even want to attend to how Team Plasma was going to retake Unova. Rosa's irritating friend Hugh had rushed in about ten minutes after Rosa had boarded the frigate, his Emboar destroying his specially designed cane, which had been the only thing controlling Black Kyurem. Of course, Kyurem had gone into a rage and almost caused a cave-in before another boy, one who had called that little prick Hugh 'babe', had caught Black Kyurem and wept over N's body.

He ground his teeth. The boy in question had to have been Touya, Rosa's elder cousin. Reshiram's hero. That pathetic excuse for a son N's friend. He had been tempted to have them both killed but thinking of how much it would affect Rosa stopped him. Instead, he had them under twenty-four-hour surveillance, thanks to the willing Team Plasma members he had employed.

He sighed when he heard a knock at the door. "Go away," he snapped.

The knocking persisted.

"I said leave!" he roared, slamming a fist against his desk.

Instead, the door opened to reveal Rosa dressed in hot pants and a vest. He could tell she lacked underwear due to the tight little buds of her nipples standing through the vest in the chill of his room left over from when he had used an ice crystal to evolve his Eevee into a Glaceon the previous day. Her eyes were hooded as if dazed, her body pliant and relaxed as opposed to the stiff tenseness in her shoulders from that morning. He noticed that her hair was down, waving around her shoulders

He stood up from his chair, surprised she had come to see him in little more than bed wear. "Rosa! I wasn't expecting you."

She closed the door behind herself and leaned against it. "I was thinking about what you said…about that kiss, you know?"

He nodded. "Yes, I remember."

She sauntered over to him, swaying her arms and hips in a way specifically designed to make her look even more seductive than usual. "I thought we could try it again," she purred, drawing up close to him – so close he could feel her breath on his collar bones, due to her being four feet and eleven inches tall to his six feet and six inches. "But a little nicer this time."

She shocked him by shoving him down into his chair and straddling his lap, adrenaline rushing through his bloodstream. Her hot, feverish skin pressed against his as she rubbed her crotch against his thigh. Arceus, she wasn't even wearing knickers under her shorts. He couldn't move, stunned by her sudden, unprovoked advances. Her breathing was heavy in his ear, her skin soft, the colour of buttermilk.

He dared himself to touch her, his hands reaching up to her shoulders to press her closer, her pebbled nipples brushing his exposed chest where he had neglected to button it up all the way. He leaned closer, brushing his lips against her neck. The touch drew a moan from her as her back arched, his hands slowly stroking down her back until he reached the hem of her vest. He yanked it up over her head, her touch leaving him for an instant to discard the blasted thing. Her breasts were more perfect than he thought they would be, round globes of peaches and cream. He couldn't help himself. He cupped her breasts and lowered his mouth from her neck to taste the left one, running his tongue around it slowly before sucking strongly. Her answering cry of delight spurred him further, his free hand toying roughly with the right one. She tasted sweet and spicy at the same time, remnants of her inner fire showing through her skin.

"Do you still want me to leave?" she purred, her voice low and husky. She laughed softly as he lifted her and used one arm to sweep his desk clear, his body going wild for her. "I'll take that as a no," she snickered, tangling her hands in his hair.

He reared back to yank off her shorts, way past the point of no return. He had no desire to explore her shape, to taste her hot honey. Instead, he jerked his zipper so hard it broke and spread her legs so wide that her toes reached each end of the desk. He was about to delve into her inner sanctum…

…When he woke up and cursed the fact it had been a dream.

He realised, with quiet hope, that the door had been knocked on. He had only slept at his desk for an hour at a push. He sat up, knowing his body was ready for what he had been dreaming of.

"Come in," he called, possibly too late to find out whether or not it was Rosa.

It wasn't. Instead, his youngest sister, Evangeline – beautiful, loving Evangeline – stepped in with a shy smile. "Can I talk to you for a sec?" she asked, only poking her head around the door.

He nodded. "I always have time to talk to you, little sister," he murmured, gesturing to the seat on the other side of his desk.

She walked over in that sassy way of hers and sat cross-legged in the chair with a sigh. "I'm worried about you," she said with a half-smile.

He raised a brow. "Why would you worry about me? You know for a fact that I am more than capable of taking care of myself."

She shook her head with a chuckle. "Oh, brother, you are really not getting what I mean."

"Then exactly what do you mean, Evangeline?" he asked, leaning forwards to prop his elbows on the desk. "Why are you worried about me?"

"I saw the way you looked at the girl – Rosa, I mean," she said softly, crossing her arms. "You're thinking about manipulating her to fall for you."

He frowned deeply. "Why would you think that? Any woman I have been with has always been with me willingly."

Her expression begged to argue. "What I'm saying is that she is young and scared. She's afraid of you – don't you see it?"

"My underlings should always be afraid of me," he retorted firmly, eyes hard. "What are you getting at?"

"She shouldn't be your underling," she murmured. "You really need to stop this."

"Stop what? Elaborate or get out," he snapped. His little sister had always had an uncanny knack for trying his patience.

"Manipulating women to bend to your every command," she said bluntly. "Rosa is a sweet kid. Don't try to turn her into Touko."

Ghetsis' mind raced at the mention of his last great obsession. Touko White was a cousin of Touya, Nate and Rosa. She had been pretty, yes, but nowhere near as beautiful as Rosa. Her fire had withered and died two months into their relationship. She bent to his every command, knowing of his temper and fearing his every movement. He had been able to tell that she was sinking ever deeper into depression. Her will had not been at all close to Rosa's, so much less than the beautiful seventeen year old.

"Go on," he coaxed Evangeline.

She sighed. "You know why Touko did what she did. You know exactly why. I won't let you do that to Rosa. I like her and so do Galatea and Alexandra." She bit her lip before continuing. "Every woman you've kept around for longer than two months has suffered because of your obsession for them. Like candles, their flames withered and died. You were just the drop of water that put them out for good." She stood up and walked towards the door. Before opening it, she looked over her shoulder. "Don't make Rosa into those other girls. She deserves better than what you gave them."

She left the room, closing the door loudly.

Ghetsis stared after her, stunned by his sister's opinion of him. Evangeline had always been outspoken and ballsy but he had never expected her to warn him away from a woman he was attracted to.

In her room, Rosa had found a pen and note book. She sat on the bay window, writing so diligently that she did not hear the door open or close. She sighed and looked out of the window before returning to her writing. Oblivious to Ghetsis' presence, she kept writing and all the while, he watched her, leaning against the bottom-left post of her bed with a hand in his pocket.

"What are you writing about?" he asked before he could stop himself.

Rosa squeaked in fright, dropping her pen on the floor. Before she could get up for it, he handed it to her, crouching before her. "You scared me, you dick!" she snapped, scowling at him as she took her pen back. "Any closer and I would have punched you."

He half-smiled and sat opposite her. "I came to see how you are," he said gently, being careful as to not startle her further. "Did you enjoy the lunch I had prepared for you?"

She nodded. "Yeah. How did you know I like my eggs poached?"

He shrugged. "I simply guessed, since that is how I prefer mine."

She raised a brow. "I took you for a scrambled kind of guy," she mused, putting the pen in her notebook and closing it. "To answer your question, I'm just scribbling stuff down – thoughts, feelings, that kind of thing."

"A journal," he said plainly. "I have never kept one myself but you are welcome to do as you please here."

She smiled slightly. "Good to know. When can I leave and not come back?"

His face fell. "Ah…I thought you would ask that."

She folded her arms. "Well?"

"Your stay will be until you no longer interest me. It could be a week, it could be a month, or even longer." He caught her dark expression and continued. "I will allow you to visit your friends and family in two months, if you hold my interest for that long."

"I want to see my friends," she snapped.

He frowned at her. "I have them under surveillance-"

"No!" she growled. "My Pokémon. I want to see them. I want to know that nothing bad has happened to them."

He nodded. "I will strike a bargain with you, Rosa. If you comply with my wishes for the next week, you can see your Pokémon in the dome. If not, then you will have to wait two weeks instead."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "On the condition that you won't make me do anything perverted, stupid or weird."

"On that one condition," he said, his mouth twitching.

She hesitated, then extended her hand to him. "Then we have a deal, Mr Harmonia."

"A deal we have, Miss Davies," he replied, grasping her dainty paw before releasing it after a moment. "May I ask you something?"

She shrugged. "I suppose so."

"Why do you not look me in the eye when we converse?" he murmured, giving her an expression she could only call strangely cute.

She bit her lip. "If I'm honest, it's the eye patch. It creeps me out. I won't ask you to take it off or anything, since I know you're obviously trying to cover something you don't want people to see, but I'm still a little curious as to why you wear it."

He looked out of the window for a moment before answering her. His voice was slightly strained. "I was once married, believe it or not, and she did this to me. She thought I had been going behind her back and having affairs left, right and centre with any woman that would have me in their bed. I was innocent but she believed otherwise. She had failed to tell me earlier in our relationship that she suffered with bi-polar disorder. The medication she had kept secret made her increasingly paranoid. One day, she took a knife to me and stabbed me in three places – my left shoulder, my abdomen and my right eye. Thankfully, she didn't cut me too deeply on the outside, but the inner betrayal left more scars than any human being has room for on their bodies."

Rosa was shocked. For one, who would have wanted to marry him? Why was the poetic saying making her heart soften and her eyes burn with tears? She quickly blinked them back before he could see, but resigned herself to looking into his eye as he spoke again.

"Never fall in love, Rosa," he murmured. "It tears and crushes you in its pursuit of destroying you and it hurts more than anyone can stand. That's why people make up the belief of soul mates, the other half of your soul. I believe that there is no such thing and those who fall in love are fools, just as I once was. Remember something for me: when you love someone, truly love them, you lay your heart open to them You give them a part of yourself that you give to no-one else, and you let them inside a part of you that only they can hurt – you literally hand them the razor with a map of where to cut deepest and most painfully on your heart and soul. And when they do strike, it's crippling – like having your heard carved out." He cleared his throat as his voice became slightly hoarse. "Love is for fools. Lust is for the one who becomes lonely in a crowded room. Hate is for everyone."

She swallowed the lump in her throat. Why was her heart aching like this? Ghetsis was a murdering bastard and a complete tyrant…So why was he stirring feelings inside her that she had never known? What as happening to her?

"You look as if you have drifted off into a dream," he murmured with that small smile she was getting used to, despite how odd it looked on his face. "Where are you right now?"

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

He cleared his throat quietly. "Where are your thoughts taking you?"

She shook her head when she couldn't quite get the words out. "I was…I was thinking about home. After my parents divorced, my mother used to tell me that love is for fools. She hated my father for putting his work above her and I. I don't hate him. I forgive him and to forgive others is the hardest thing anyone can learn to do."

He smiled approvingly. "An excellent philosophy to be had. My sisters could learn a lot from you."

She shrugged with a smile that reflected his. "I have to say, you aren't as bad as I thought you were – conversationally wise."

He shrugged one shoulder. "You will learn in time that I am not what your mind makes me out to be."

**I just love this quote. It's from Sherrilyn Kenyon's books (I forget which one) and the first time I read it, I thought 'that is so impossibly true' and it is. 'When you love someone, truly love them, you lay your heart open to them You give them a part of yourself that you give to no-one else, and you let them inside a part of you that only they can hurt – you literally hand them the razor with a map of where to cut deepest and most painfully on your heart and soul. And when they do strike, it's crippling – like having your heard carved out.' Best. Quote. Ever. I'll be using a lot of Kenyon quotes in this fic, so I'll mention them in the post-chapter author's notes.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Rosa was surprised the following day. It was just after lunch and she had, as she had the previous day, eaten in her room. At one o'clock, Ghetsis entered, looking like the cat that got the cream.

She looked up from her book with a small smile of greeting. "It never occurred to me that you would own anything denim," she mused, giving his bright blue, purposely-aged jeans a pointed look. "No offence, but you look pretty out of your element in those."

He shrugged a shoulder elegantly. Rosa realised that, apart from that N boy she had only known for five minutes, she had never actually seen someone move so fluidly. He moved like water on a tilted pane of glass. "I have a surprise for you," he said kindly, offering her his hand.

She refused it and put her book page-down so she didn't lose her place. She was reading another Pokémon book, this one studying the Deino-Zweilous-Hydreigon evolution line. "You always seem to interrupt me when I'm reading," she muttered too low for him to hear, then got up off the bay window. It was her favourite place in the room to sit and read peacefully.

He allowed her to exit the room and closed the door behind himself. "You like to read, don't you?" he said softly, beginning to walk down the corridor.

She shrugged. "It's my way of escaping. Every time I got to a Pokémon Centre, I would look through the charity books on sale there and pick one out to read when I camped out and donate the one I had picked up from the last Pokémon Centre. When you're freezing cold, drenched with rain or hotter than Mount Chimeny, a book can take your mind off these things."

"Then you will like what I am going to show you," he said, leading her down the stairs. "I, too, have an affinity for literature. Mostly I prefer the classics such as Steinbeck, the Bronte sisters and Dickens but I occasionally stretch to Steven King." He looked down at her fondly. "Which authors are your favourites?"

She pursed her lips, thinking. "I have quite a few favourites. Isaac Marion, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Mira Grant, David Moody, Karen Chance, Jeaniene Frost, Keri Arthur, JR Ward, Sylvia Day and Tiffany Reisz are a few of my firm favourites," she confessed. "I especially enjoy Kenyon's works. You quoted one of her books when you were telling me not to fall in love yesterday."

"I did?" he said with a frown. "I don't think I have read any of her works."

"She writes a lot of different books. The League, the Belador saga, the Dark-Hunters series, the B.A.D Agency novels, the Chronicles of Nick…She recently had the Dark-Hunters series and the Chronicles of Nick commissioned to be made into manga novels. Speaking of manga, I love reading stuff by Matsuri Hino, Norihiro Yagi and Clamp. I know it is a little dumb, a girl my age reading what literally translates as a comic book, but there's meaning you can find in them, weirdly enough."

Ghetsis turned them down another corridor and stopped outside the first door. "This is the library," he said gently. "It's full of books, both fiction and non-fiction. Any books you wish to read, I will have purchased for you."

He opened the door and allowed her to step inside. Rosa marvelled at the high ceiling – three floors up, she guessed – and the tall shelves, the balconies, and in the middle sat three chaise lounges, a pair of black leather corner group sofas and a red loveseat. A coffee table in the midst of it all held a thin vase with a single red rose in it. Several petals had fallen from it and littered the table. In one of the corners sat a small kitchen with four cupboards – two floor-standing and two on a small patch of wall between two gargantuan book shelves – a sink and a kettle. She presumed Ghetsis liked to have a tea or coffee with his books.

"This is beautiful," she murmured, taking in the full book shelves.

"I spend a lot of time here when I have no work to do," he said, closing the door behind him. "I had an idea. Perhaps we could each pick a book for the other to read, something we both like, but it has to be a book the other has not read before and represents ourselves."

She shrugged. "I'll try to pick just one," she said with a laugh. "This place is just…Well, I can't even describe it. I can see why you spend a lot of time here. I know I would."

He smiled secretly, hiding it from her while her back was to him. Even then, he surveyed how she looked from the back. Her strong shoulders were outlined in a halter top, half of her back exposed. He visually examined her tattoos, wondering what made her have them done before she was legally allowed. Either way, he found the trio of bird Pokémon on her upper back enchanting and, oddly, quite sexy.

"I know exactly the book to pick for you that represents me!" she grinned, looking at him over her shoulder. "Please tell me you haven't read 'The Little Prince'."

He shook his head. "There are so many books in this library that I often overlook some titles," he said bluntly. "'The Little Prince' is one of many I have no read yet, but I have to ask. What about 'The Little Prince' represents you?"

"It's one of my favourites," she said with a small smile, going over to the shelf where she had seen it displayed by its spine. "My Dad used to read it to me at night before bed for about two years before I got bored of it. I still have the old copy in the basement at home. Well, I say basement but it's more of a small library because I have so many books."

He strode over to a ladder positioned against one of the shelves and climbed up it, picking out a book he had read, but was sure Rosa may have not. Shelley's 'Frankenstein' was a peculiar book to him but he saw so much of himself in the monster it was hard to resist asking her to read it. As he had, he had a feeling she would find it both terrifying and enchanting. He climbed back down at met her in the centre of the room by the blue chaise lounge.

"Here," she said, handing it to him.

He took the book from her and handed her Shelley's crowning glory. "I think you will see how I feel about this book when you read it," he said brightly.

She looked at the title and smirked. "I can guess how Frankenstein's monster reflects you without even reading it," she taunted him and placed the book on the lounge. "I'm going to have a cup of tea. Do you want anything?"

He snickered. "Which kind of tea? There are several kinds in the top left-hand cupboard."

Rosa didn't doubt that. She looked in the cupboard and picked out a herbal green tea with lemon and honey. Strangely, it was the same brand her mother used to buy during her health-food craze. "Do you want one?" she asked, filling the kettle fully and turning it on.

He smiled. "Yes. I'll have a simple Earl Grey with one sugar and a dash of milk. The milk is in the bottom right-hand cupboard. It's actually the fridge. There should be some biscuits in the cupboard next to the tea."

She took out the biscuits and put the packet on a plate she dug out of the second bottom cupboard after getting out the milk and the cups. With ease, she made their tea and handed him the Earl Grey. He murmured a thank-you and sat on the red loveseat, sipping the tea with 'The Little Prince' on his lap.

She took up a spot on the blue chaise lounge and opened the book to begin reading. He, too, began to read, taking in each word as if she were the one reading them to him. For hours, they sat reading, taking it in turns to get up and make more tea, leaning forwards to take a biscuit. They barely registered the sound of a grandfather clock tucked away in the depths of the library.

Ghetsis yawned suddenly, then looked at his watch. "Arceus," he muttered, then looked at Rosa, who echoed his yawn. "We must have lost track of time. It's almost ten-thirty."

Rosa frowned and sipped her tea. "We must both be enjoying reading," she said plainly and gulped down the rest of her tea. "Not that I can really complain. This is a really good book."

He nodded in agreement. "As is the one you chose for me to read." He used one of the bookmarks on the table to mark his place and set it on the table. "You are welcome to take it back to your room, provided it comes back undamaged."

She nodded and marked her place. "I'll leave it here and come back tomorrow after lunch again." She stood and stretched, rolling her neck on her shoulders. "I should get to bed. I'm pretty tired."

"I will guide you back to your room," he offered, opening the library door before she could.

They walked in silence back to her room, both lethargic and their minds buzzing with the goings-on in their respective books. They stopped outside Rosa's door and she bit her lip.

"I…I feel like I should say something eloquent right now," she said uneasily.

His lips quirked into a small smile. "Just the fact that you are happy is thanks enough." He opened her door for her. "Thank you for choosing 'The Little Prince', Rosa," he murmured. "It truly is a beautiful book."

She smiled, then blushed. The pink flush gave her big eyes more of a golden effect. She bit her lip again, then stood up on her tip-toes and granted him a fleeting kiss on the cheek. "Thanks," she mumbled and dashed into her room, slamming the door behind her.

Ghetsis touched his cheek where she had left a smear of almost-gone lipstick. When he looked at his fingers, they came back with a ruby coloured wax coating them. She had kissed him…willingly. The though shocked him so much that he pinched himself to be sure he was not dreaming.

He knocked on her door and she opened it. Before she could react, he returned the kiss with one of his own on her cheek. "Turnabout is fair play," he whispered in her ear before departing.

When he was around seven feet away from Rosa's door, he felt something smack into the back of his head. He turned to find Rosa with a face like thunder, a candle clattering, broken, at his feet.

"I told you not to touch me!" she snapped, throwing another candle at him. She had a supply of them in her free hand. This one was blocked by his forearm. She advanced on him slowly, throwing candles that broke on impact and fell to the floor.

When she was close enough, he grabbed her and shoved her against the wall viciously. She showed no fear in her expression or her eyes, her face completely enraged. She was stronger than he gave her credit for.

"Stop this," he whispered. "Stop this now, Rosa. It will not get you anywhere you wish to go."

"Why can't you just let me go?!" she shouted in his face. "I don't want to be here! I hate it here and I hate you!" she struggled against his firm grip. "Get off of me!"

"You touched me first," he whispered, trying with all of his willpower to keep his temper under control. "You are the one who kissed me. You merely deserved one in return. That is no reason to start throwing candles at me."

Her face softened slightly. "I asked you – politely, might I add – not to touch me," she said firmly. "You just went back on your end of the deal. Twice."

He gently released her hands but pressed her against the wall by her shoulders. "Rosa, please, do not make this harder for either of us than it already is."

She frowned and looked away from his eerie red eye. "What do you want from me?" she whispered, tears entering her voice. "Why did you bring me here? What was the point of all this?"

He released her shoulders and tilted her chin up so she looked him in the eye. Tears snaked from the corners of her eyes, leaving sparkling trails down her pink cheeks. "I understand why you hate me," he murmured in such a way that Rosa felt genuinely comforted. "To all of Unova, I am a monster. I believe that if I can show just one person who I really am, what I'm really like, then I will be at peace with myself. The things Unova has done to me and to my family are unforgivable. However, as I know it will please you, I have called off any and all attacks that had been scheduled to be carried out against your region. People will keep their Pokémon. Nowhere but the Giant Chasm will be frozen. Kyurem and Zekrom have been separated." He used his thumb to wipe away her tears. "Stop crying, Rosa. I don't like it."

She sniffled and swiped at her cheeks, mildly pushing him away. "I'm fine," she mumbled, keeping her hand on his wrist for a moment before taking it off. "I'm just fine."

He shook his head. "Would you allow me to, ah, give you a hug?"

Her eyes went saucer wide. She seemed to consider and hesitate in the same moment. "I could use a hug right now," she muttered, slumping her forehead against his chest.

Surprised by the action, Ghetsis slowly wrapped his arms around her tiny body, pressing her close. He was sure she made a little sound of comfort, a small moan he wanted to hear again. What truly stunned him was the fact that she returned the hug, looping her arms underneath his and resting her palms on his back.

The feel of the hug…It felt strange to him. Ghetsis had never been hugged before, not even by his family. He could feel her heartbeat against him, the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed, and he could smell the blend of lavender, chamomile, ylang-ylang and rosewood on her enticingly soft skin.

Rosa was amazed, too. She hadn't expected him to be so…gentle. She has originally assumed that his kind of hug was breaking someone's spine but this…This was…It was _nice_. His shirt faintly smelled of Turkish tobacco and some posh fabric softener but underneath that, she could smell lemon, mandarin and bergamot with a faint undertone of sandalwood. It was strangely attractive, and she liked a guy when he smelled appealing.

Maybe she could grow to like Ghetsis, given time. After all, she had found that they had some things in common: physical and mental scars, books and a softer side neither of them let anyone else see.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Rosa had antagonised Ghetsis for the last time. He couldn't even recall what she had said or done but he knew that he just _had_ to punish her. It was an unbearable, indisputable _need_.

He grabbed her wrists, pinning them above her head. Before she could anticipate his next move, he had her wrists in handcuffs. She was so shocked that she ceased struggling and stopped shouting. He dragged her down the hall by the cuffs and shoved her into his study.

His second desk was clear of all paperwork with a short chain fastened to the underside of it. He shoved her down on it and secured the chain to the links of the handcuffs. Her panicked breathing was all he could hear in the deadly silence. This would teach her for antagonising him so readily.

He put his face very close to hers, an expression of pure menace on it. "You are going to learn why my underlings fear me, Rosa," he growled. "And you're going to like it."

He shoved a flexible, plastic paperweight into her mouth to prevent her from screaming. She kicked out at him but he was too strong and swiftly overpowered her. He removed her trainers and her jeans in two quick movements and basked in the glory of her naked legs for a moment. Her wide eyes and whimpers spurred him on to do as he wished with her, caused him to yank down her pale pink, frilly knickers to expose her tiny cunt.

He looked at her trembling, her eyes wide with fear. He sat in his chair and smirked at her. "You know I am a monster, Rosa," he purred. "But some monsters are capable of making someone feel weak instead of hurt." He forced her legs apart and shifted his chair closer.

She was shaved smooth, not even a sign of hair growth to interrupt his unspoiled view of her quivering secret skin. Her labia were small yet perfectly formed. Her clitoris was a small nub of nerve endings. He could tell just from looking at her that she was barely-used, possibly still a virgin.

He licked his lips and lowered his head, running his tongue along the crease where her crotch met her thigh. The sensation drew a potent shiver from her, her body unused to the feel of a tongue there. It was as if she had never been treated properly by a man in her life so far.

Ghetsis' tongue parted her folds, licking a wet path up to her clit. She writhed and made protesting sounds, using her hips to attempt to buck him away. He kept at her, using his fingers to part her open to him. He ran his tongue around her clit, casual in his motions until he tasted the bittersweet honey that heralded that she was being aroused by the treatment of her pussy. Her bucking was beginning to lessen, her body surrendering to the pleasure.

He nipped her clit lightly before rising up over her body to look her dead in the eye. The fear and tears there scolded him deeply, burned his soul. "_This_…This, Rosa, is what I can do to you given three minutes," he purred. "Imagine what I could do to you in three hours."

He took the paperweight from her mouth. A whimper followed its exit. "Please…" she sobbed. "Please, stop…I'll do anything you want, just please…stop…"

He shook his head. "No. You see, Rosa, this is why I really want you here. In less than a fortnight, you will be of age. I have tried to be kind to you and you have thrown it back in my face." He cupped her cheek gently, stroking away a stray tear. "I don't want this to come between us. Don't break because of me. I am so _sick_ of breaking things." He kissed her quaking lips softly. "Don't be like the rest of them, Rosa. Be the fire that you are. Be Moltres, the Phoenix, whatever you wish to call her. That is who you are. That is what makes me interested in you."

She squeezed her eyes shut and let out a shaking breath. "Please let me go," she whispered.

He kissed her again lightly and then scowled. "Kiss me and I will. If you don't, I will keep having my way with you. Comply and I'll take three days off your waiting time to see your friends."

When he touched his lips to hers again, she moved her mouth against his, shocked at how gentle he was being. He hadn't hurt her when he had been exploring her nether regions and that, too, stunned her – he could feel it to the very depths of his soul. She felt his hand on her cunt, dipping inside slightly and rubbing her clit, coating her with her own juices. Her hips bucked under the feeling, her body internally burning for that sweet satisfaction that only a decent fucking could give.

Ghetsis pulled away and smiled at her, one of those smiles that contained the hopes and dreams of the young boy he had once been. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" he purred and drove a finger inside her.

She let out a soft cry and clenched around him. "Please stop!" she yelped. "Please!"

He nibbled her lower lip and bent closer to whisper in her ear, "Say my name, moan it, cry it out, but just say it."

"Let me go!" she sobbed, tears streaking her face. "Please, just stop!"

"Say. My. Name," he snarled, flexing his finger against the secretive G-spot inside her. His thumb rotated on her pulsing clit, drawing another moan from her. "_Say it! Say my name!_"

She opened her mouth, taking in a harsh, deep breath, but all he heard was her scream.

He jerked upright in his bed, panting heavily. Damn it all to hell, it had been another dream! He punched the mattress and realised, to his upmost embarrassment, that he was standing fully to attention, a tent in his sheets. He cursed himself and Rosa for good measure before escaping to the bathroom for a cold shower. When his raging body had calmed, he left the bathroom to find it was already nine in the morning. He rarely slept in so late.

Once he had dressed, he made his way next door to Rosa's room.

"Who is it?" she called in a rather jovial tone.

"Me," he answered. "May I come in?"

The door opened before he could put his palm on the handle. Rosa looked a vision dressed in a pale blue halter top and a pair of jet black jeans that hugged her thighs. Blue was truly her colour. "Hey," she said, giving him a small smile.

"Good morning," he murmured. "Did you sleep well?"

She shrugged. "I rarely sleep properly." She allowed him to enter and shut the door behind herself. "I was just getting dressed."

He hid a smile. "Of course."

She lifted her top a little to thread a scarf-like belt through the loops on her jeans. He saw that, on her flat abdomen, she had a large set of teeth marks.

"Your stomach," he said, frowning. "What caused that?"

She bit her lip and tied the scarf. "My mother's prized Hydreigon," she muttered and sat on the bay window. "I was seven."

He sat opposite her as he usually did. "How did it happen?"

She sighed softly. "I was in the food shed when I found an egg there – a Deino egg. I picked it up to take it to the incubation room and there Lotus was. It was her egg and she was trying to protect it. I offered it to her but when I was walking towards her, I tripped on a rake and it smashed." She shifted uncomfortably. "Lotus went ape shit. She bit me in twelve places – three for each head. The worst was my abdomen. My uncle heard her roaring and shot her in all three heads. She dropped and my mother came out of nowhere. She was shouting and screaming at my uncle to call an ambulance. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in Castelia Hospital's Intensive Care Unit. I'd been kept in an induced coma for three weeks so I could heal." She rubbed her belly unconsciously. "I suppose Lotus got her own back for the egg. Her fangs penetrated my womb. I can never have kids or the scar tissue will reopen and I'll die."

When she looked up at him, eyes filled with tears, Ghetsis' heart stopped. Her face was filled with pain and fear.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

She snorted and swiped at her tears. "No need to be. Lotus wasn't your fault. It was mine for tripping on that fucking rake. It's my fault that little Deino never saw the sun or felt the grass between its toes." She shook her head. "Lotus had always been protective of her eggs. After that breeding season, my mother gave up breeding Hydreigon, Deino and Zweilous altogether. I've had a fear of Hydreigon ever since." She bit her lip. "That's why I lost."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"My Zweilous against your Hydreigon. I just froze and I couldn't think of anything, not even Zweilous' safety. Everything but your Hydreigon was blacked out and I felt so scared I couldn't make my voice work or my body move. It was that petrifying fear you get when you're staring into the face of death." She shuddered. "I let my fear get in the way of a crucial moment. It's what landed me here."

He tentatively touched her hand as she hugged her legs. "It wasn't your fault – with your mother's Hydreigon, I mean. I have to say, I do not blame you for losing if Hydreigon scared you that much. He's actually a big softie when he's not battling." He chuckled to himself. "When he was a Deino, he would curl up in bed with me. All he wanted was a hug."

She smiled sadly. "I still feel guilty about the Deino egg," she mused and sniffed. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Of course," he smiled kindly as she uncurled her legs from against her chest. "What would you like to talk about?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Um…Erm, what did you want to be when you were growing up?"

He snickered. "Supreme ruler of Unova," he teased her.

She laughed softly. "No, really. This is a serious question here."

"I wanted to be a writer," he said, a weight lifting from his shoulders. "I used to write a lot but as I got older, it just seemed like a silly idea. I've never told anyone, not even my sisters."

She smiled. "I could see you as a writer," she said. "No offence, but I think you'd be a non-fiction writer, like about caring for Pokémon or something."

He shook his head. "No, I wanted to write novels that would make your grandmother have a heart attack."

"Horror novels? That's rather fitting."

"No, no," he laughed, a wide, toothy smile spreading across his face. "Erotica novels."

She raised a brow. "I really have no idea what to say to that."

He shrugged. "It just came the easiest to me. I've heard authors say that erotica is the most difficult genre to write but I just flowed into it. Believe it or not but I have quite the imagination."

"Oh, really?" she giggled. "I bet you'd _love_ to demonstrate just how vivid your imagination is."

He bit his lip in a way that made her wonder exactly how good his imagination was. "Don't tempt me, Rosa. I think that you would protest if I were to…_demonstrate_ a few things I have previously written."

"Is that so?" she said, her brow raised again. "Maybe if you get me drunk enough for my eighteenth, I just might be inclined to let you."

"Have you ever even been drunk?" he asked with a frown.

She shook her head. "Nope, just mildly tipsy."

"Just to assure you," he murmured, "I don't take advantage of a woman when she is drunk."

"Oh, so you do it to men?"

The silence could have been cut with a knife before the two of them began laughing. Rosa fell off the window seat, clutching her sides at Ghetsis' expression. As their giggle fits dissipated, Ghetsis stood up from the bay window and helped her to her feet.

"That was quite amusing," he grinned, gently smoothing her hair behind her ears.

She nodded with a dimpled beam. "Sure was. It was your face that got me. That was a picture!"

He chuckled and tilted her chin up. "May I?"

She bit her lip, hesitating with her answer. He hadn't hurt her when he hugged her the evening before. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt…She nodded.

He bent down and pressed the barest of kisses against her pouty lips. When she didn't react, he grew bold and allowed himself to apply more pressure. He was dazed when she did react, leaning upwards and gently moving her lips against hers for a moment before she pulled away.

Her cheeks were filled with a pale blush. Her eyes shone with a deep light he couldn't fathom the emotion of. "That, uh," she said, then bit her lower lip to hide a smile. "That was kinda…_nice_."

He smiled shyly, an expression completely at odds with the maniac within. "I quite agree." He ran his tongue over the inside of his lower lip. "Perhaps you would allow me to do it again tomorrow?"

She pursed her lips, then grinned. "Wait a second," she said gleefully, pointing at him. "I know why you _really_ took me! You have a crush on me, don't you?" At his full-faced, bright red blush, she knew she was right. "Holy shit on an alter!" She laughed. "Who would've thought it, huh? An egotistical psycho with a god complex has a _crush_ on me!"

"I-it's not like that!" he protested as she laughed.

"Oh?" she snickered. "Then how is it?"

He was speechless. For the first time in his life, he had no clue as to what to say or do next. Instead of confronting the issue, he made a swift exit, his face too hot for comfort.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Rosa couldn't keep herself from grinning every time her thoughts swayed towards Ghetsis the following day. His blush when she had figured him out was, strangely enough, _adorable_. The expression combined with the bright blush made her want to make a fan-girl noise. It wasn't often she found embarrassment in guys cute – hardly ever at all until that morning – but there was something about a vulnerable Ghetsis that made her soften her hard-ass act and actually speak to him truthfully.

Newsflash! Crazy megalomaniac has crush on teen Trainer!

She grinned to herself as she heard a knock on the door just after lunch. When it opened, she found Ghetsis' youngest sister Evangeline there looking bright and cheerful. "Hey, Rosa," she smiled. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure," Rosa answered. "I'm not doing anything so some company would be lovely."

Evangeline closed the door behind her and sat opposite her on the window seat. "How are you getting on today?" she asked.

Rosa shrugged. "Well, apart from the entertaining fact that your brother most likely wants to do me like a jigsaw puzzle, I'm getting on alright," she mused, crossing her legs. "And you?"

She smirked. "I knew it. Ghetsis does have a crush on you," she said smugly. "I guess I should give you the whole 'hurt my big brother and you're dead' speech but I'll leave that up to Galatea and Alexandra."

Rosa laughed softly. "I will admit, knowing a forty-year-old dude wants to fuck my brains out is a confidence booster."

"He's thirty-two," was the reply. "I will say that Ghetsis has done much worse than you in the way of relationships."

"What do you mean?" Rosa frowned.

Evangeline shrugged. "Ghetsis…doesn't exactly have the best of ways with women. His ex tried to kill him, for Arceus' sake."

Rosa shrugged. "Yeah, he told me about that. From what he said, it was her having a mental illness that was the real cause."

The older girl bit her lip. "I'm going to give you some advice, Rosa. You seem like a really nice girl and I don't want to see you get hurt like so many others before you."

She frowned. "What do you mean, Evangeline?"

She took a deep breath. "Ghetsis has a thing about fiery girls. The sooner you lose your attitude the sooner you'll be sent home to Aspertia City," she murmured, avoiding Rosa's big blue eyes. "Ghetsis has, in the past, manipulated women into falling for him and when they do, he gets bored and casts them off for the next conquest. Since we came back to Almia, I've counted eight women he's done this to. I don't think you would want to be any of those girls, Rosa, not with how my brother's treatment of them screwed their heads up."

Rosa frowned deeper. "I…I understand that you're trying to protect me, Evangeline, I really do. It's just…I guess, over the past few days, I've kinda gotten to _like_ Ghetsis – just a little bit." She smiled kindly. "Just give me the warning signs and I'll be sure to look out for them."

Evangeline bit her lip and nodded. "Okay. Well, it starts with him spending X, Y, Z amounts of money on lavish gifts – he gave one girl this gorgeous Versace dress with real sapphires stitched into the bodice! The next part is when he tries to give you a Pokémon, usually a very rare one like a Riolu or maybe even scarcer. The last part that I've noticed is getting you into bed. Do not, under any circumstances, accept _anything_ he gives you and definitely don't have sex with him."

Rosa nodded. "Right, gifts, Pokémon and fucking. Don't accept and don't do. I think I've got it."

Ghetsis entered Rosa's room at that point, completely unannounced, wearing a half-undone shirt and jeans that rode low on his lean hips. His usually smoothed-back hair with its three slight cow licks was gone. Instead, he sported a layered cut usually suited to older teenagers with baby faces…except that top cowlick on his crown still stuck up stubbornly. Instead of flowing past his shoulders, it was cut just above his chin.

In an internet search Rosa had conducted, she had discovered that this had been almost exactly how he looked in his twenties when he was taken home to Almia after being held captive by the Unovan Prime Minister Aleksandre Niffok during the five-year Almia-Unova war in the nineties. Rumour had it that the war was only sparked over the fact that the Almian President, Peter Nakes, had insulted Niffok's wife over at a Unified Region Alliance conference. The only difference between the photos on Google and the man before her was that he had some very slight wrinkles around the corners of his eyes.

"Evangeline," Ghetsis said with a mild hint of contempt in his voice.

His sister gave him a shit-eating grin. "Ghetsis, how nice of you to drop by," she chirped, then looked at Rosa. "Remember what I said, honey."

Rosa winked at her and received one back. She waited until Evangeline had shut the door behind herself before smiling at Ghetsis. "It's a bit young for you, isn't it?" she taunted sweetly.

He chuckled and strode over to sit across from her. "How are you today? I trust Evangeline's constant nattering didn't give you a headache?"

She shrugged. "I liked talking to her. She seems like a real character."

He smirked in a rather boyish way that reminded her of a younger Ghetsis. It made her wonder exactly what it would have been like to get to know him if they had been the same age. She knew she would never know and yet the thought of getting to know him before Niffok had held him captive and turned him into a deranged lunatic made her feel gloomy. Just from spending the past few days with him – albeit only for a few hours or minutes at a time – that he had once been someone she could have possibly wanted to be with. Now with his domineering streak very much present…well, he certainly wasn't her type in the personality department.

"Evangeline can be very insistent about some things," he said smoothly. "I'm the older brother who gets her nit-picking twenty-four-seven."

Rosa half-smiled. "You're actually not so bad now that I've gotten to know you."

He shrugged elegantly. "You judge someone on how they treat you, don't you?"

She nodded. "Yes, as well as how he treats others."

He took a deep breath, nervous about what he was about to say. "Rosa, I…I have made the decision to disband Team Plasma." At her surprised expression, he elaborated. "I will no longer be attempting to overthrow Unova. I see nothing else in it. I have scared Niffok so badly that he has had a heart attack. That is satisfaction enough after what he did to me."

She bit her lip. "What _did_ he do to you?"

He shook his head slowly. "I shouldn't tell you, Rosa. Even I am repulsed by even the thought of it. I can only imagine how frightened you would be if I told you." He cast his gaze out of the window. "All I will say on the matter currently is that I still have nightmares, even after seven years. That is how brutal my treatment by that bastard was."

Without a second thought or hesitation, Rosa crawled across the wide bay window seat and hugged him. He didn't react for a moment but eventually put his arms around her and held on for what seemed to be dear life.

"Ghetsis!" she yelped. "I can't breathe!"

He instantly released her and, when she sat up again, he stroked her long bangs out of her eyes. "Thank you," he murmured. "I really needed that."

She smiled slightly and played with his fringe for a moment. "No offence, but this hair style doesn't really suit you."

He shrugged. "I'm regretting it as well."

"Well…I have trained my Serperior well so he can make it grow again if you like," she said gently. "Serperior can do that when they reach their highest level or they are born with it. My Serperior was the latter but we had to learn together how to control it."

He grinned at her and stroked her cheek with the back of his knuckles. "You are so sweet," he said, quickly pushing his own hair out of his eyes. "You were right yesterday, by the way."

She smirked cheekily, sitting back in her original place. "What, that you have the hots for me?"

He blushed and nodded. Arceus dammit, he was useless when it came to his true feelings. The emotion he had felt for his previous girlfriends before the boredom was lust, which was definitely not what he felt now. His stomach held a swarm of Butterfree. His heart pounded like dubstep 'music'. He felt so damned nervous when he was alone with her now.

"Yes," he mumbled and ran his tongue along his lower lip. "I would voice my opinion; conversely I would make myself look a fool."

She shrugged. "It's kinda flattering, really."

His expression brightened. "Perhaps, you would permit me a small kiss?"

Her brow raised. "Don't push your luck," she teased, smiling sweetly. At her reply, his face fell into a look she knew all too well from her Stoutland in his Lilipup days. "No. No, no, no. Not the puppy eyes, please!"

"Please?" he said, still maintaining the poor Lilipup look.

She sighed. "Fine, I give up," she said, folding her arms. "But you have to come at get it. I'm not coming to you."

He smiled brightly and slowly crawled to her, his movements alighting her heart into ExtremeSpeed mode. "As you wish," he whispered against her cheek when he was close enough. Slowly, he touched his lips to hers. When she did not react, he leaned back and raised a brow. "What is the matter?"

She pursed her lips. "Well, if you call that a kiss, I'd hate to see how softy-softy you are during-"

He took the opportunity as it presented itself and kissed her hard, curling one hand around the back of her neck. He could feel her heart quickening from her pulse point. His mouth moved hungrily against hers as she retaliated, grabbing hold of a fistful of his hair. Her other hand gripped his shirt at the back, feeling his muscles rippling under his skin. His free hand went to her lower back, moving her hips closer to his as he hardened, just so that she could feel exactly what she did to him with her hot mouth.

She felt the hard rod in his trousers and ground firmly against it, letting out a small sound of enjoyment. His answering groan was breathed into her mouth. As her lips parted, he stroked his tongue inside her mouth, encouraging her.

Arceus, Rosa was lost. She felt helpless and yet powerful at the same time with his tongue in her mouth and her hips so close to his. They had equal footing on the ladder of lust but she was slowly getting the upper hand, especially when she cheekily sank her nails into the flesh of his firm ass. His kiss became more ardent, more possessive, as if he was trying to crawl his way into the deepest depths of her being.

She jerked back quickly, placing her hands on his chest to gently push him away. "That's all," she murmured, watching the scowl on his face.

He still scowled, but it slowly morphed into a pout. A childish pout. "That's cruel," he told her firmly, rubbing his steely hardness against her thigh. "Can't you feel what you do to me?"

She smirked cheekily and rubbed her hips against his again. "Of course I can. There's more than enough to feel," she said, toying with the low-hanging collar of his shirt. "I just don't feel much like indulging you."

He frowned deeply. "I am really not familiar with being denied."

She raised a brow. "Oh really? Then go find a hooker or something," she teased, smiling. "I am not having sex with you."

His arrogant smile returned. "You say that now, but you may change your mind in the near future," he said playfully even though he was not joking. "I _will not_ give up on a challenge."

Rosa laughed softly and forced him to move as she stood up, pulling her rumpled shirt down over her abdomen. "That's not likely. I'm very stubborn," she mused, going over to her bag and taking out a book. She handed it to him. "This is one of my favourite books. You should read it."

Ghetsis looked at the cover. 'Acheron' by Sherrilyn Kenyon. "What do you think made her choose this title?" he asked.

She shrugged. "The main character's name is Acheron. Read it for me, please?" she said sweetly, pouting cutely for a moment.

He nodded. "I will if you tell me something about it."

"Basically, Acheron was abused and in the end, he gets his happily ever after. I'm not telling you any more than that," she said, pulling out her secret Pokeball. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," he replied.

She turned to him with the Pokeball in her hand. "Would you be pissed if you hadn't known this was in my bag?" she smirked.

He stared at her for a moment before clearing his throat. "Well, I certainly am not happy about it but I suppose, since your other Pokémon are in the Dome, I will allow you to keep whichever Pokémon that is with you."

She frowned. "Aren't you even going to ask which Pokémon it is?"

He shook his head. "I was rather hoping you would show me instead."

Rosa stood beside the bed, leaving a large gap between her and Ghetsis, and released the Pokeball's latch. After a bright shine of red light, a tall, very beautiful Pokémon appeared. Ghetsis would have sworn it was female from the feminine grace the Pokémon held itself with but he couldn't be sure.

The Pokémon was six feet and seven inches tall, just that little bit bigger than him. A long slender neck leading up from an elegant yet strong body encased in leaf-like scales that flared above its flanks as a form of a tail. It had a hammer head with a cream face holding brown eyes like chocolate. Its hooves were jet black and looked like steel.

Rosa smiled slightly. "I caught her when she was injured in Pinwheel Forest," she said to Ghetsis as she approached the Pokémon. "Some poachers had been hunting her and she had been bitten by an Arbok. I gave her some pecha berries and warned the poachers off. When I wasn't looking, she went inside one of my empty Pokeballs." She stroked the Pokémon's lean neck and it – she – leaned into the touch as if it was the most amazing thing she had felt.

"That's Virizion," Ghetsis breathed, marvelling at the sight of the legendary Pokémon. "Oh, my word…She is more beautiful than researchers had predicted."

Rosa smiled as he approached her side. "She's very docile, if I'm honest. She hates battling but she will always help me if I need her to. Because she is a legendary Pokémon, her Pokeball just registers as empty." She continued to stroke Virizion's neck until she noticed Ghetsis' wary posture. She gently took his hand and placed it on Virizion's neck so he could feel how soft her leafy scales really were. "She won't hurt you unless you provoke her."

He smiled at Virizion, who granted him one back. "You are amazing, Rosa," he said bluntly, looking down at her. I never expected you to have a legendary Pokémon."

"I never expected to see her being chased when I was with Hugh all those years ago. This was when I was really young and I was trying to catch a Sewaddle – just because they are so cute! So my mother gave me some Pokeballs and took Hugh, Olivia and I to Pinwheel to see if we could catch a Pokémon. She loaned me her Stoutland and Charizard to ward off the poachers and she helped me when I was aiding Virizion here."

Virizion smiled at the two of them and let out a small sound of contentment. _You are very good to me, Rosa_, the young girl heard in her head, knowing Virizion possessed telepathic capabilities. _This man you are with today…Is he good to you? Or should I teach him some manners?_

Rosa smiled and shook her head. "No, Virizion, its okay," she soothed her as the Pokémon grew a little too restless for Ghetsis' liking. She looked at the sage coyly. "Virizion likes you."

He raised a brow. "Does she?"

She nodded. "Yes. Virizion is a very good judge of character."


End file.
